Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Zachariah Joseph Powell Booking Photo | Humboldt County Correctional Facility

On the morning of Sept. 24, 2023, Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were contacted by two victims reporting vehicle burglaries.

One of the victims, whose vehicle was broken into in the Valley West area of Arcata, told deputies that he had tracked his stolen airpods to a location in McKinleyville. Deputies responded to the location and learned from witnesses that a teal truck had reportedly been parked in the area with unknown males looking through backpacks. The truck left prior to deputies’ arrival. While conducting their investigation, deputies were contacted by the second victim who reported the theft of two bank cards from their vehicle. The victim was alerted to the theft after receiving a notification from their bank regarding a purchase at a local gas station. Surveillance footage obtained from the gas station depicted a male suspect exit a teal pickup truck and utilize the stolen card to purchase items from the business.

Deputies patrolled the McKinleyville area and located the truck parked in front of a residence on the 1900 block of Elm Street. At the residence deputies contacted multiple people, including the suspect seen on the surveillance footage. The suspect, who initially provided deputies with a false name, was identified as 30-year-old Zachariah Joseph Powell. Powell was found to be on probation with a search clause.

During a search of Powell and his belongings in the residence, deputies located drug paraphernalia, numerous driver’s licenses, the airpods and other items from the Valley West burglary. Additionally, in the truck bed, deputies located a subwoofer that had been reported stolen to the Arcata Police Department during another recent vehicle burglary.

Powell was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of possession of stolen property (PC 496(a)), false identification to a peace officer (PC 148.9(a)), petty theft (PC 488), theft of property (PC 484(a)), possession of a controlled substance paraphernalia (HS 11364) and violation of probation (PC 1203.2(a)), in addition to warrant charges for shoplifting (PC 459.5).

Vehicle burglary is a crime of opportunity. An offender makes a decision to break into a vehicle based on a perception that there are items of value inside the vehicle, which makes the potential payoff worth the risk. A vehicle burglary can be completed in a minute or less, leaving very little investigative clues behind. Because this type of burglary is a crime of opportunity, there are steps you can take to prevent this crime from occurring.

1. Keep the interior of your vehicle “showroom” clean. Always remove valuables from inside your vehicle. The Sheriff’s Office commonly receives reports of purses, bags, briefcases and wallets being stolen from vehicles. We have even received reports of thieves breaking in to steal a pair of sunglasses. Even if you do not believe the item is of value, remove it from plain site.
2. Be cautious when storing valuables in your trunk. If your vehicle is equipped with a trunk release button on the inside, thieves can easily access your vehicle’s trunk space. While “hiding” items in your trunk may reduce the chance for your vehicle to be a target, the action will not completely protect you from theft.
3. Remove garage door openers, key cards, and house, work or car keys from your vehicle.
4. Always lock your vehicle, even if you are home. In public places, it may be tempting to leave your vehicle windows down to avoid vandalism. However, this puts you at even more risk, leaving vehicle registration and insurance information accessible to anyone nearby and increasing your chances of falling victim to identity theft, burglaries at your home and vehicle theft.

To report a vehicle burglary or related criminal activity, contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 707-445-7251.

UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: The highway is open to one-way controlled traffic, per the CHP.

###

Highway 101 is closed just south of the Humboldt County line this morning, according to the Caltrans Quickmap.

The closure follows report of a semi truck overturning on the highway at about 6:20 this morning. According to Highway Patrol dispatch logs, the truck was carrying dry concrete. The CHP estimates the closure will last six hours; Caltrans, usually conservative with such things, is currently estimating the closure will last until 2 p.m.

We’ll update when we know more. If there is no STOP SIGN in the center of the map above, then the roadway has been reopened.

The weekend. The eight-hour workday. Paid family leave. Those fruits of labor victories are part of everyday life in California. Now the state’s hot labor summer may have helped inspire another precedent-setting measure, if Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill on his desk that would allow striking workers to receive unemployment benefits.

How many workers would get help, and can the state afford to pay each of them as much as the $450 maximum per week? The answers, researchers and advocates say, likely depend on whether California’s recent wave of labor activism continues, and what action lawmakers take to shore up the state’s debt-ridden unemployment insurance system.

Senate Bill 799 would provide unemployment benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks. Legislators passed it Sept. 14, just before Hollywood writers and studios headed back to the negotiating table four months into a strike that has paralyzed the industry, and as thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers continue their union’s rolling labor stoppages in a push for higher wages.

Now more than 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in California are threatening a strike if they don’t reach an agreement with the hospital chain by Sept. 30. And on Friday the United Auto Workers expanded its walkout against major automakers to parts distribution centers in 20 states, including California.

So far unions representing more than 180,000 workers have staged California strikes this year that lasted at least two weeks, according to Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. That includes about 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who walked off the job in July, and 11,500 Writers Guild of America members, who went on strike May 2 but reached a tentative deal Sunday with the major Hollywood studios.

Considering more than 1.7 million Californians have filed initial jobless claims during the same period, some supporters describe the potential unemployment benefits to strikers as a drop in the bucket.

“I think we’ll continue to see labor activism until we right-size the economy for workers,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, which backs the bill. “But you have to remember that long strikes are usually only sustained by people who have unions, and that is still relatively low density in California and everywhere in the private sector.”

A cost-benefit analysis

Labor leaders argue that unemployment benefits for strikers would level a playing field tilted toward employers, preventing companies from simply waiting out a strike until workers, unable to pay their bills, become desperate.

Employers, who fund unemployment benefits through payroll taxes, say the bill would force them to pay for strikes and that California’s overburdened unemployment insurance system can’t afford to take on new responsibilities.

A strike is “a game where you plan and prepare and tell the employer we can hold out longer than you,” said Robert Moutrie, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce. “We view that strategic technique as profoundly different than being unemployed.”

The chamber estimates California would have paid out an extra $215 million over the last 12 months if the proposed law were in effect. But an Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis put the cost far lower, in the “low millions to tens of millions” per year.

Unite Here Local 11 and their supporters rally outside Los Angeles’ Airport on June 22, 2023. A California bill would provide strikers with unemployment benefits. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters

California’s unemployment benefits average $367 per week, typically replacing less than a third of unemployed workers’ wages. If 68,000 Kaiser Permanente workers were on strike in a given week, for example, and all collected the average benefit, the state would pony up $25 million. But strike action waxes and wanes, and nationally, only about a quarter of unemployed workers actually apply for benefits.

One key question: Will knowing they can draw on unemployment benefits embolden more workers to strike? It might, said Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents striking hotel workers.

“For workers who are at the lower end of pay scale, who are one paycheck away from economic disaster, knowing that there would be unemployment as a supplement would give workers more confidence that they can strike and strike for a longer period of time,” he said.

Still, he said, his union’s members would be facing off against large hotel companies that can sustain a loss at one property and make it up at others. “Will it make it a little more of a fair fight? Yes. Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”

Lessening the risks for workers

Going on strike is always risky for workers, because they can be permanently replaced, said Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the left-leaning think tank The Century Foundation who studies unemployment. “They don’t have to just deal with the uncertainty of unemployment, but they also have to go out on strike lines,” she said. “It’s not a lazy person’s sport.”

Other economists said the proposed law could create a ripple effect: Companies that know their workers are more likely to strike could make more generous offers to avoid that possibility, leading to earlier contract settlements.

“There are multiple indirect effects here and it’s hard to know how big the indirect effects will be,” said Mark Duggan, director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“Do employers have enormous advantages in negotiations with workers? Yes … The CEO never has to worry about paying the rent.”
— Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11

For Mayra Macias, the question is less abstract. A cashier and barista at Whittier College in Southern California, Macias went on strike with her coworkers earlier this year, asking for a pension. Bon Appetit Management Company, the food service contractor that employs her, already offered workers a 401k plan, but Macias — who after 18 years on the job was earning about $18 per hour — said she and most of her coworkers couldn’t afford to contribute to it.

The strike lasted 28 days. At times, Macias said, she wanted to give up. She borrowed money from her sister to pay her phone bill and from her daughter to pay her car insurance.

“At about two weeks your mind starts messing with you, making you feel like this isn’t working,” she said. “Regardless of that negativity that’s always there, you gotta get up each day and do it again.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly,” she added. “And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”

Having unemployment benefits, “would’ve mentally eased my anxiety and my stress of knowing I can hold on one more day and it’s going to be ok,” Macias said. “I’m going to be able to survive. And I don’t need to go to my family for help.”

Other states paying benefits to strikers

New York and New Jersey provide unemployment benefits to striking workers. An average of about 3,000 striking workers per year received such benefits in New York over the last decade, according to the state’s labor department. Three years ago New York reduced the threshold for strikers to qualify for benefits from seven weeks out of work to two weeks; since then the state has paid less than $2 million in unemployment to strikers, compared to $21 billion in regular unemployment benefits, a department spokesperson said.

Lawmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut also have floated proposals to extend the unemployment safety net to strikers.

Some employers argue California’s unemployment system is already too generous. Employer groups have lined up against the California bill, and a think tank affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce released a study finding that California has among the least restrictive eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits in the nation, along with relatively low penalties for fraudulent unemployment claims.

The state’s unemployment insurance fund currently owes the federal government $18 billion, after the pandemic led to widespread delays in issuing checks to frustrated applicants and an estimated $32 billion in fraud.

Unemployment taxes are experience-rated, which means businesses that lay off more workers pay more. But California’s federal debt imposes an additional charge that’s spread evenly among all employers, which makes them — and some lawmakers — wary about increasing it.

“I cannot support a bill that will add debt to employers who are completely uninvolved in the strikes,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, during a floor debate on the bill.

Much of the system’s debt stems from California’s decision to impose unemployment taxes on just $7,000 of workers’ annual income, experts say — the lowest among states, tied with Florida, Arkansas and Tennessee. (Washington, the state with the highest rate, assesses unemployment tax on the first $67,000.)

Progressive economists are quick to point out that unemployment benefits would help not just individual strikers but the broader economy. With thousands of writers and actors out of work, “that’s a lot of people who might not be going to coffee shops, and you could see them shuttering their doors,” said Alix Gould-Werth, director of family economic security policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Unemployment checks could prevent some of that hardship, she said.

Unemployment benefits’ role

The federal government designed the unemployment insurance system to help keep wages from declining overall, said Evermore of The Century Foundation. Allowing workers to engage in collective action supports that goal, she said.

“This is one of those issues where states have to decide. If they want to be a low road state with low wages and bad infrastructure they can do that,” she said. “You have to decide, do we actually want a high quality of living in the state and not just cheap labor and happy wealthy people in gated communities?”

Sen. Anthony Portantino, the Burbank Democrat who authored the proposal, has said he sees it as an opportunity to discuss ways the state could shore up the unemployment fund.

“Your feet hurt, they’re swollen, you’re not eating properly. And your bills keep coming in. They don’t know you’re on strike.”
— Mayra Macias, cashier and barista at Whittier College

Duggan, the Stanford professor, pointed out that other states — red and blue — have set the amount of wages subject to unemployment taxes to rise as overall incomes do. Connecticut recently did that after its fund weakened due to a flood of pandemic-related claims.

“It’s just good government — if you’re going to run a program like this, it shouldn’t live beyond its means,” said Duggan.

Newsom recently told Politico he was “cautious” about expanding unemployment benefits given the fund’s debt. A spokesperson for his office declined to say Friday whether he would sign the bill. The governor has until Oct. 14 to make a decision.

Macias said she hopes he’ll sign.

For the 61-year-old, going on strike was worth it: Bon Appetit agreed to put 90 cents per hour worked toward a pension fund.

“There’s a peace of mind that I know when I’m old and frail and I can no longer work for these big companies, I will have something come through my mail besides Social Security and that’ll be my union pension,” she said.

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Rusty was called home to Heaven on August 29, 2023, at the age of 43. He was born on May 10, 1980, in Humboldt County, and he was born and raised in McKinleyville.

Rusty was known for being the nicest, sweetest, kindhearted and well-mannered person. He would do anything for anyone. He loved making people laugh and smile, and he was known for his joking and teasing. His smile and laughter would light up a room.

He loved the outdoors, especially the woods, fishing, and hunting. He also had a passion for cooking. He was a hardworking man who loved his jobs.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Carrie Ray, his grandmother, Donna Deboise, and his grandfather, Bill Ray.

He leaves behind his only daughter, Maddie Johnson; his two sisters, Josie in Texas, and Franny in Nevada; and his only brother, Josh Barry. He is also survived by his uncles and aunts: Joey and Jacie Ray in Arizone, Jeannie and John Davis, Debbie and Jerry Hardcastle, and Aunt Teri Ray. He had numerous aunts and uncles.

Rusty was very close to some of his cousins, who were like siblings to him: Johnny Davis (Family), Jenny Davis (Family), Julie Pelren (Family), Jessica Lackey (Family). He had numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

He also left behind the love of his life, Melissa Davis.

Rusty will be truly missed and loved by the ones who knew him. His Celebration of Life will be held on October 8, 2023, at 2 p.m. at the Manila Community Center, 1611 Peninsula Drive, Manila.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Rusty Johnson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Tony was born July 14, 1941 in Arcata and passed away September 12, 2023 in Mckinleyville after a courageous, hard-fought battle with cancer.

Tony grew up in Samoa, playing around Humboldt Bay’s sandy dunes and beaches. He attended schools in Arcata and Eureka, then he served in the U.S. Army, 101st Airborne from 1959 to 1961.

He worked for Georgia-Pacific, U.S. Plywood and Simpson Plywood/Fairhaven until the mills were shut down. He had his own groundskeeping business for five years and then worked as the groundskeeper at Mckinleyville High School for 21 years until retiring.

Tony was an accomplished gardener growing a yearly crop of fresh fruit and vegetable, as well as raising goats and chickens. He was handy with a hammer too; building and maintaining chicken houses, goat barns, sheds, decks and fences.

He was a dedicated waterfowl hunter for over 65 years, hunting with friends and his son, Neal. Some of his favorite places included Tule lake, lower Klamath, Alturas as well as our local Humboldt Bay and the Arcata Bottoms. Additionally, Tony enjoyed clamming, fishing, watching hockey games and stock car races.

Tony was preceded in death by his son Neal Branco, and his parents, Tony Branco Sr. and Lena Leonardo Branco, as well as many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara; his daughter Janis Branco and Todd Jackson; his brothers Daniel Branco and David Branco; his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Kurt and Jo Gantenbein; his nieces, Amy Verley and Kristi Sams; his four-legged hunting buddy “Teal,” and many friends.

He was a friendly, giving, hardworking and outspoken man.

A Good man, lived a good life and will be greatly missed.

No formal services will be held.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Tony Branco’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

“…the freakish riddles … the irresponsible phantasmagoria of an ecstatic”

— Art historian Wilhelm Fränger, writing about The Garden of Earthly Delights

###

Last Monday, we spent most of the day in Spain’s “Prado” (Museo Nacional del Prado) one of the must-see attractions, not just of Madrid but of all Europe: over 100 rooms of the best of pre-20th century European art. We tried to absorb as much as we could in a single visit: the Mona Lisa (da Vinci), Naked & Clothed Mayas, and the (chilling) May 3, 1808 Executions (Goya), The Three Graces (Rubens, who loved bosoms), Las Meninas (Velazquez)…But I had to start in room 56A, where I lingered for half an hour or so, meeting face-to-face for the first time a work of art that has haunted me for decades: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

For me — who knows very little about art — this is the weirdest painting ever created. It came from the hand of an artist who lived in the Netherlands about 500 years ago, and of whom we know next to nothing. Jheronimus van Aken, c. 1450-1516, lived nearly all his life in the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, taking part of that name for his signature, Jheronimus Bosch. Of the two dozen works confidently ascribed to him, the one known to every student of the strange and wonderful is what we now call, in English, The Garden of Earthly Delights, dated to about 1505.

At first blush, it’s an obvious religious allegory. On the left panel, we’ve got the Garden of Eden; in the middle, a gay old time is being had by all; and finally, having pissed your life away with wine, women and song, you get your comeuppance in a hellish landscape. What’s to explain? According to the many, many art historians who’ve taken a crack at this: everything. Bosch’s visions have no clear correlation with anything that came before, it was, in its time, sui generis, a work unlike any other, with allegories that no longer make any sense.

Left-hand panel

Here we’ve got a youthful God presenting newly-minted Eve to a just awakened Adam (minus one of his ribs, presumably) in the Garden of Eden. Is Adam’s expression one of amazement? (When he went to sleep, there was just himself on Earth.) Or, foreshadowing the middle panel, is it lustful as he ogles naked Eve? Above and below, there’s a whole bestiary of exotic and fantastic animals cavorting: an elephant (monkey on its back) and a giraffe (both barely known to Europeans of the early 1500s), unicorns, assorted three-headed creatures, birds by the score. Not to mention that duck-beaked humanoid reading a book…This all seems a stoner’s view of what an Earthly Paradise looks like.

Middle panel

Art experts disagree on whether Bosch is celebrating sensuality — we’ve been given these human bodies to enjoy to the max; or he’s warning us about indulging in too much of a good thing. In this garden, almost everyone’s naked, and they all seen to be having a great time. There’s a shameless innocence about them: cavorting with each other and with the unafraid animals, splashing in the water, cuddling, eating huge berries. Fishes walk on land while birds play in the water. Black and white bodies mingle. A dolphin-tailed knight rides a winged fish. Spend time with this and you’ll see more every time.

Right panel

Night has fallen and innocence gone. Cities are on fire. Water is the color of blood. Demons are everywhere. People are being massacred, impaled, burned alive. The eroticism of the middle panel has gone — men and women now cover their breasts and genitals in shame. A bird-monster eats a human while excreting another. Then, oddly (as if everything so far isn’t sufficiently odd) a very human face looks askance — a self-portrait, according to one historian, noting the “expression of irony and the slightly sideways gaze…the signature of an artist who claimed a bizarre pictorial world for his own personal imagination.”

Having now spent a little time in the presence of the piece, I’m even more convinced of my initial reaction when I saw a reproduction many years ago: not only is it really (really) weird, but it’s also great fun to pore over and try to figure out what it’s all about. Along with this sneaking feeling: Are we trying too hard to make sense of it all? Was Bosch just messing with us, and now he’s laughing in his grave?

After the joy-killing pandemic years, the Humboldt music scene has made noticeable strides toward healing itself in 2023. Venues that struggled to keep their doors open as a community nervously isolated itself have frequent bookings again and conversations surrounding the safety of gathering in tight, sweaty places seem, at this point, like a distant memory. Fun is out there (if you want it).

Another sure sign that our musical ecosystem is righting itself: There are new bands springing to life vying to provide you with your next Humboldt soundtrack. Take for example The Critics, a quartet of alt rock-loving Fortuna teenagers that have already managed to make a big, impressive noise. Back at the Fernstock 2023 Battle of the Bands in June, the group managed to win $5,000 by besting over a dozen other local groups — stocked with musicians sometimes two or even three times older than them. The kids came to play!

Adding to their budding legacy, The Critics also just released a new, slick music video for their song “Where U Went,” which the Outpost suggests you now watch.

To coincide with the “Where U Went” release, the Outpost wanted to learn a bit more about The Critics. Due to the difficulty of juggling band members’ various schedules — think, like, school and stuff — we opted to submit some questions to the group via email which they were kind enough to answer with some additions from local videographer Justin Grimaldo, the director of the “Where U Went” video.

# # #

LoCO: We appreciate your willingness to answer some questions for us in this format. First, maybe you could just provide some basic biographical information about the band.

The Critics: Our band includes four members — guitarist and singer Sergio Ramirez, 19, drummer Ethan Fuller, 18, lead/rhythm guitarist Josh Fuller, 16, and bassist Aaron Soli, 19. Ethan and Josh are brothers. Sergio and Aaron graduated from Fortuna Union High School (FUHS) in 2022 and are currently at College of the Redwoods.  Ethan graduated FUHS in 2023 and is enrolled in a local barber college. Josh is a junior at FUHS. Sergio and Ethan have been friends since middle school and became friends with Aaron in high school.

Around 2019 Sergio had been playing guitar and wanted someone to drum with him for fun. Ethan decided to pick up the sticks and start learning along with him. Josh had been playing guitar a year prior and was not interested in The Critics project at first. A couple months had past, Josh finally decided to play with them and they enlisted the help from their buddy Aaron to play bass. Once we all played together, we knew we had chemistry and decided to start a high school band. (Josh being in 7th grade at the time).  Our first gig was Wildwood Days in Rio Dell in 2021, we played a skatepark fundraiser that same day. Due to COVID those were the only 2 shows we played together that year.  In March of 2022 we played at The Jam Arcata for the first time and have been consistently playing gigs ever since.  

LoCO: I guess the easiest label to apply to The Critics’ music might be alternative rock, but how do you all define your sound?

The Critics: We definitely describe our sound as alternative rock. In recent years new alternative music has kind of felt more like pop to us, but there is a more rock feel to our music.

LoCO: What are some bands that helped inspire and shape your musical direction?

The Critics: Arctic Monkeys was our biggest influence with the first cover and song we played being Fluorescent Adolescent.  Another favorite band is The Strokes. More recently we have pulled inspiration from Radiohead and Kings of Leon.

LoCO: It feels like there is a new interest among youth in playing music with live instrumentation. At a time when electronic music and DJ culture are so ubiquitous, what made you all want to make this kind of music and why do you think live music is important?

The Critics: Music was always in each of our lives and we have different stories of how music spoke to us. Rock always felt like the coolest genre and there is so much to it instrumentally. A lot of modern pop can seem kind of boring to us, so we really enjoy putting new rock music into the world. Our message to the world is that young talent and rock is still out there and we hope people are inspired by our music in the future. A huge part of our band is playing live and not only is it just the most fun thing you could ever do, it’s how we connect with our fans and create new ones.  (while also making a bit of money) Live music is vital to a band and it’s the best way to get your music out there as well as bringing communities together in a fun way.

LoCO: Tell us about this new video for the song “Where U Went.” Why did you want to make a video for that song?

The Critics: We chose to use “Where U Went’ for various reasons, but the main one is that we believe in it.  We have high hopes of getting our name out there and this song has an interesting and catchy guitar riff that we hope people will connect with.

In December 2022 we released our song “The Noise” to alternative rock stations across the US.  We were pretty excited that 68 stations downloaded our song and we were able to confirm that it was being played across the US.  We plan to release “Where U Went” to radio stations next and wanted a music video to back it up with.

LoCO: Why is making music videos important for bands in 2023?

The Critics: In this age of social media and the internet, having a music video will help in promoting our music.  

Justin Grimaldo: There are so many reasons why music videos are essential in 2023 and beyond. Even if the music video isn’t a “banger,” it still gives bands a chance to express their creativity beyond sonically. A lot of lyricists create these worlds in their heads while writing and music videos are able to express that outside of the song itself. It also lets producers, labels, etc., know that you are serious about what you do. Especially when you put as much as you can into the production of your music videos. There’s the argument that the future of music videos is unclear but I don’t believe that to be the case. If you have a good song, a compelling story, music videos will be watched until the end of time. They are also great for content for social media. They serve so many purposes.

LoCO: How did you all find Justin and what influence did he have on the direction of the final product?

The Critics: Justin saw us live for the first time at Fernstock Battle of The Bands, where we won the top prize.  He reached out to us the next day letting us know that he believed in our band and that if we were interested, he’d love to collaborate with us on a music video.  Due to some previous work we had done with FUHS photo and design, we already had an idea of what we wanted.  We shared our vision with Justin and he ran with it and made it better. Justin directed, filmed, edited, and produced it all in a very short timeframe.  He shared the first draft of the video with us and we were completely blown away.  The “Where U Went” music video is such an accomplishment for us and we are so very thankful to Justin for making it all happen.  We are also thankful to Tex Kelly and Leslie Castillo, who helped on-site, and to Jasmine Younger for being our amazing actress (Sergio’s girlfriend in the video).

Justin Grimaldo: I’ve been around a lot of different bands — bands that put on the amazing flashy show, bands that are so “in the pocket” and bands that just seem to have the whole package but lack something more. That something more is the thing that makes this band in my opinion. You can’t ever really put your finger on it but when you find that “something more” it’s hard to ignore.

I had heard of The Critics but for some reason or another, I was never able to make it to a show of theirs. Then came the Fernstock battle of the bands. I had no clue they were on the bill. What was supposed to just be an outing with the family turned into being sonically stimulated.

I listened to band after band and while every single one of them gave it their all, one stood out above the rest: The Critics. I walked over and basked in that sonic stimulation that I mentioned previously. Riffs in the vein of Foo Fighters mixed with Radiohead, MuteMath, Muse and plenty of others captured my ear holes. I had my camera in hand and with each snap I took, I kept thinking to myself “if these guys do it right, they could go somewhere.” I reached out shortly after they won the Battle of the Bands because I wanted to serve in any way that I could. I believe if the community has something or someone’s to back and they have the tools and resources, do whatever you can to help. What skills I have I threw out there to the band and we ended up creating something great together. I believe in the guys and always will. 

LoCO: What’s next for The Critics? What are the ambitions for the band?

The Critics: Right now we are taking a short break from live performances and focusing all our energy into our next EP which will be recorded next month.  We are excited about this new EP — we believe our songwriting is getting better and better. We have been writing and performing a lot of new music recently and are already planning another full album in 2024. 

Our ambition is to be known enough that we can make a living playing our music.  We’d love to go on tour, especially with another well-known band. We are all best friends and we want it to stay that way.  Our relationship with each other is more important than the band itself.  It’s our friendship and having fun together that makes the band.

LoCO: What do your individual futures look like?

The Critics: We all hope that The Critics is part of our individual futures and we’re ready to see where the band goes.  But if we can’t make a living doing that, then we have our back-up plans. Ethan plans to graduate barber college and work alongside his father at Main Street Barber in Fortuna. Josh hopes to attend a UC and get a master’s degree studying Physical Chemistry or be a music engineer. Aaron’s hope for the future is to pursue music and/or become a professor. Sergio plans to study and teach philosophy and know what it means to push himself past his limits. 

LoCO: Any upcoming shows where people could catch you?

The Critics: We have two shows coming up on October 21st and 31st in Ferndale at Griffin Loch’s Scream-A-Torium Scaregrounds event. We are also working on a show in Arcata with The California Poppies — date to be announced soon.  Best place to find our show schedule is at thecriticsband.com or follow us on Instagram or Facebook. 

LoCO: Anything else you want people to know about your music or the band?

The Critics: Our album, Miserable & Melodramatic, can be found on all streaming platforms and our website.  You can also buy a CD, with an 8-page insert that has lyrics and pictures, at Friends of Sound, The Works, People’s Records, or at our shows.